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THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 



THE 



BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 



FROM APULEIUS. 



%si|y^ 



l NEW YORK: 

PUBLICATION OFFICE, BIBLE HOUSE. 
JAMES PORTEUS, GEN'L AGENT. 

1867. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by L. A. Osborn, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



Eleetxotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
No. 4 Spring Lane. 



Comhill Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 

3 Cornhill, Eoston. 



INTRODUCTION. 

APULEIUS, the author of this beautiful 
episode, was a native of Madaura, an 
inland town of Africa, where he was born in 
the early part of the second century. He re- 
ceived the first rudiments of education at Car- 
thage, and there adopted the Platonic system 
of philosophy, in which he perfected himself 
by subsequent studies at Athens. His works 
are numerous, of which, probably, the most 
celebrated is The Golden Ass, from which the 
story of Cupid and Psyche is taken. In this 
work, many writers, especially Bishop Warbur- 
ton, have discovered a profound theological pur- 
pose. "There have been some morals given 
it," says the translator of the edition of 1709, 
"but few or none that seem to fall within the 



INTRODUCTION. 

design of the inventor of the fable. Some have 
made it the union of the soul and body ; others, 
Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge. 
For my part, it seems to me to be a moral 
chiefly against curiosity, as is instanced twice 
by Cupid himself. The heathen priesthood had 
reason to hurl their batteries against it, for they 
were conscious of follies so great in their gross 
imposition on the people that they might well 
fear a discovery from a liberty to curiosity." 

In the concluding pages of this volume, 
which, we think, contains all that is worth 
preservation in the various translations hereto- 
fore published, the reader will find copious notes 
and explanations. To these we refer him, with 
the wish that they and their subject may afford 
both entertainment and instruction. 



THE STORY OP CUPID AND PSYCHE. 




THE BIETH OF PLEASUKE. 



XT 7E ought not to despair of those good 
* » events which we sigh for in the extrem- 
ity of such misfortunes as seem to forbid all 
hopes of relief. For the evils of life, well- 
managed, are a sort of sauce to the goods of 
our happier days, which gives them a greater 
relish. The story of Cupid and Psyche, so val- 
ued of old, and so admired in all ages, is both 
a lesson against the curiosity of the weaker sex, 
and a pregnant proof of a certain, if not a 
speedy, deliverance by providence from the sad- 
dest of misfortunes. The parallel of this story, 

(9) 



10 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

with many that have been enacted since the 
world began, makes it more proper for recital. 
Most people have been baffled in their highest 
hopes, and some still sigh for their consum- 
mation. Psyche lost her Cupid, indeed by her 
own fault ; — but the story itself will best ex- 
plain the matter and afford the highest pleasure. 

In a certain city in Greece there lived a king 
and queen, who had three daughters of remark- 
able beauty. The charms of the two elder, 
though sufficient to engage the hearts of the 
most fastidious, were still thought not to exceed 
all possible measure of praise ; but as for the 
youngest sister, human speech was too poor to 
express, much less adequately to extol, her ex- 
quisite and surpassing loveliness. The story of 
her beauty was so great as not to be confined 
to the natives of her paternal dominions ; but 
strangers, whom the fame of the extraordinary 
spectacle gathered to the spot, were struck dumb 
with astonishment at her unapproachable charms, 
and paid her religious adoration, as though she 
were the goddess Venus herself. 

And now the report spread through the neigh- 



THE STOKY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 11 

boring cities and adjacent countries, that the 
goddess whom the azure depths of the ocean 
had brought forth, and the spray of the foamy 
billows had nurtured, dwelt in the midst of mor- 
tals, and suffered them indiscriminately to behold 
her divine form ; or, at least, that once again, 
impregnated by a new emanation from the starry 
heavens, the earth, not the sea, had brought 
forth another Venus, gifted with the flower of 
youth. Thus did her fame travel rapidly every 
day ; thus did the news soon traverse the neigh- 
boring islands, a great part of the continent, and 
multitudes of provinces. Many were the mor- 
tals who, by long journeys over land, and over 
the deep sea, flocked from all quarters to behold 
this glorious specimen of the age. No pilgrim- 
age was made to Paphos l or Cnidus, and even 
the Cythereans themselves forgot their homage 
to the altars of Venus. Her sacred rites were 
abandoned, her temples suffered to decay, her 

1 Paphos was a city in the Isle of Cyprus. Cnidus was a 
city in Caria. Cythera, now Cerigo, was an island situate to 
the south of Laconia. These places were all famous for the 
worship of Venus. 



12 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

cushions l trampled under foot, her ceremonies 
neglected, her statues left without chaplets, and 
her desolate altars defiled with cold ashes. A 
young girl was supplicated in her stead, and the 
divinity of the mighty goddess was worshipped 
under human features ; and the maiden was pro- 
pitiated in her morning walks with victims and 
banquets offered her in the name of the absent 
Venus. And ever, as she passed along the 
streets, the people crowded round, and ador- 
ingly presented her with garlands, and scattered 
her path with flowers. 

This extraordinary transfer of celestial honors 
to a mortal maiden greatly incensed the real 
Venus ; and, unable to suppress her indignation, 
and shaking her head in towering wrath, she 
thus soliloquized : — 

"Behold how the primal parent of all things, 
behold how the first source of the elements, 2 

1 Couches on which the statues of the gods reclined in the 
temples, with delicate viands placed before them. 

2 The ancient philosophers considered Venus to be the first 
source of all things. See the opening lines of the poem of 
Lucretius. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 13 

behold how I, the genial Venus of the whole 
world, am treated ! The honor belonging to my 
majesty shared by a mortal girl ! My name, 
that is registered in heaven, profaned by the 
dross of earth ! I must be content, forsooth, 
with the uncertain homage of a vicarious wor- 
ship, and with my share in expiations offered 
to me in common with another ! And a mor- 
tal girl shall go about in my likeness ! It is 
all for nought that the shepherd Paris, whose 
justice and good faith the mighty Jupiter ap- 
proved, preferred me to such mighty goddesses, 1 

1 The well-known fable to which this alludes is thus beau- 
tifully unfolded by the Platonic Sallust, in his treatise on the 
Gods and the World. " In this fable, which is of the mixed 
kind, it is said that Discord, at a banquet of the gods, threw 
a golden apple, and that a dispute about it arising among 
the goddesses, they were sent by Jupiter to take the judgment 
of Paris, who, charmed with the beauty of Yenus, gave her 
the apple in preference to the rest. But the banquet de- 
notes the supermundane powers of the gods ; and on this 
account they subsist in conjunction with each other. And the 
golden apple denotes the world, which, on account of its com- 
position from contrary natures, is not improperly said to be 
thrown by Discord, or strife. Again, however, since different 
gifts are imparted to the world by different gods, they appear 



14 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

on account of my unparalleled beauty. But 
this creature, whosoever she be, shall not so 
joyously usurp my honors ; for I will soon cause 
her to repent of her contraband good looks." 

Thus saying, the goddess forthwith summons 
her son, that winged and very malapert boy, 
who, with his evil manners, sets at nought all 
ordinary institutions, and, armed with flames and 
with arrows, runs by night from one man's 
house to another, and blighting matrimonial 
happiness on all sides, commits such mighty 
mischiefs with impunity, and does nothing what- 
ever that is good. 

This young gentlemen, mischievous enough in 
his own nature, she incites to still more evil by 
her words ; she brings him to the city, and 
points out Psyche 1 (for that was the name of 
the maiden), and after telling him the whole 

to contest with each other for the apple. And a soul living 
according to sense (for this is Paris), not perceiving other 
powers in the universe, says that the beauty of Venus alone 
is the contended apple." — Taylor, 

1 This was the Greek name for the soul ; a moth also was 
called by the same name. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 15 

story about that mortal's rivalry of her own 
beauty, groaning with rage and indignation, she 
said, — 

"I conjure you by the ties of maternal love, 
by the sweet wounds inflicted by your arrow, 
by the warmth, delightful as honey, of that 
torch, to afford your parent her revenge, ay, 
and a full one, too ; and as you respect myself, 
severely punish this rebellious beauty ; and this 
one thing, above all, use all your endeavors to 
effect : let this maiden be seized with the most 
burning love for the lowest of mankind, one 
whom fortune has stripped of rank, patrimony, 
and even of personal safety : one so degraded, 
that he cannot find his equal in wretchedness 
throughout the w r hole world." 

Having said these words, and long and ten- 
derly kissed her son, she sought the neighboring 
margin of the shore, on which the waves ebb 
and flow, and with rosy feet brushing along the 
topmost spray of the dancing waters, she took 
her seat on the watery surface of the main, 
where the powers of the deep, the instant that 
she conceived the wish, appeared at once, as 



16 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

though she had previously commanded their at- 
tendance. 

The daughters of Nereus came to pay their 
court to her, all singing in chorus ; Portunus, 
too, rough with his azure-colored beard, and 
Salacia, 1 weighed down with her lapful of fish, 
with little Palaemon, their charioteer, riding upon 
a dolphin, and then troops of Tritons, furrowing 
the main in all directions. One softly sounded 
his melodious shell ; another, with a silken 
canopy, 2 protected her from the unpleasant heat 
of the sun ; a third held a mirror before the 
eyes of his mistress ; while others, again, swam 
yoked to her car. Such was the train that at- 
tended Venus, as she proceeded to the palace 
of Oceanus. 

In the mean time, Psyche, with all her ex- 
quisite beauty, derived no advantage whatever 
from her good looks ; she was gazed on by all, 

1 The goddess Salacia was so called from " Salum," the 
" salt sea." She presided over the depths of the ocean. 

2 So, in the Fasti of Ovid, we find Hercules holding a 
canopy or umbrella over Queen Omphale, to protect her from 
the rays of the sun. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PYSCHE. 17 

praised by all, and yet no one, king, noble, or 
plebeian even, came to woo her for his bride. 
They admired, no doubt, her divine beauty, but 
then they all admired it as they would a statue 
exquisitely wrought. 

Long before this, her two elder sisters, whose 
more moderate charms had not been bruited 
abroad among the nations, had been wooed by 
kings, and happily wedded to them ; but Psyche, 
forlorn virgin, sat at home bewailing her lonely 
condition, faint in body and sick at heart ; sick 
of her own beauty, though it delighted all the 
rest of the world. 

The wretched father of this most unfortunate 
daughter, suspecting the enmity of the gods, and 
dreading their wrath, consulted the very ancient 
oracle of the Milesian god, 1 and sought of that 
mighty divinity, with prayers and victims, a hus- 
band for the maiden whom no one cared to have. 
But Apollo, though a Grecian and an Ionian, 
by right of the founder of Miletus, delivered 

1 Of Apollo, who had a temple and oracle at Miletus, a 
city bordering on Ionia and Caria, and founded by a son of 
Apollo, whose name it bore. 

2 



18 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

an oracle in Latin verse to the following ef- 
fect : — 

" Montis in excelsi scopulo desiste puellani 
Ornatam mundo funerei thalami : 
Nee speres generum mortali stirpe creatum, 
Sed saevum atque ferum, vipereumque malum ; 
Qui, pinnis volitans super sethera, euncta fatigat, 
Elammaque et ferro singula debilitat ; 
Quern tremit ipse Jo vis ; quo numina terrificantur ; 
Mumina quern horrescunt, et Stygise tenebrae." l 

The king, who had led a happy life till then, 
on hearing the announcement of the sacred or- 
acle, returned home full of sorrow, to impart to 
his queen the behests of inauspicious fate. Many- 
days together were passed in grief, and tears, and 
lamentation. But time pressed, and the dire or- 
acle had now to be fulfilled. The procession 

1 " On some high mountain's craggy summit place 
The virgin, decked for deadly nuptial rites ; 
Nor hope a son-in-law of mortal race, 
But a dire mischief, viperous and fierce ; 
Who flies through ether, and with fire and sword 
Tires and debilitates whate'er exists, 
Terrific to the powers that reign on high. 
E'en mighty Jove the winged destroyer dreads, 
And streams and Stygian shades abhor the pest." — Taylor. 



THE STOKY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 19 

was formed for the deadly nuptials of the ill- 
fated maiden ; the lighted torch burned ashy, 
black, and sooty ; the strains of conjugal Juno's 
pipes were changed for the plaintive Lydian mel- 
ody ; the joyful hymeneal song closed in dismal 
wailing, and the bride wiped away her tears with 
the nuptial veil 1 itself. The whole city groaned 
in sympathy with the sad destiny of the afflicted 
family, and a public mourning was immediately 
proclaimed. 

The necessity, however, of complying with 
the celestial mandates importunately called the 
wretched Psyche to her doom. The solemn pre- 
liminaries, therefore, of this direful marriage be- 
ing completed in extreme sorrow, the funeral 
procession of the living dead moved on, accom- 
panied by all the people ; and the weeping 
Psyche went not to her nuptials, but to her 
obsequies. And while her woe-begone parents, 

1 This, which was called " flammeum," was of a bright 
yellow, or flame color. If the torches, that were carried 
before the bride, shed a dim light, or sent forth much 
smoke, or were extinguished by the wind, it was considered 
a bad omen. 



20 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

overwhelmed with horror, strove to delay the 
execution of the abominable deed, the daughter 
herself thus exhorted them to compliance : — 

"Why torment your unfortunate old age with 
continual weeping? Why waste your breath, 
which is more dear to me than to you, with 
repeated lamentations? Why deform your fea- 
tures, to me so venerable, with unavailing 
tears? Why lacerate my eyes in afflicting your 
own? Why tear your hoary locks? Why beat 
your bosoms, and those hallowed breasts? Are 
these to be the glorious results to you of my 
surpassing beauty? Too late do you perceive 
that you have been smitten by the deadly shaft 
of envy. Alas ! then should you have wept and 
lamented, then bewailed me as lost, when tribes 
and nations celebrated me with divine honors, 
and when, with one consent, they styled me a 
new-born Venus. Now do I feel and see that 
through that name of Venus alone I perish. 
Lead me away, then, and expose me on the 
rock to which the oracle has devoted me : I am 
in haste to encounter these auspicious nuptials ; 
I am in haste to see this noble bridegroom of 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 21 

mine. Why should I delay? "Why avoid his 
approach, who has been born for the destruction 
of the whole world ? " 

The maiden, after these words, said no more, 
but, with unfaltering steps, took her place in the 
multitudinous procession. They advanced to 
the destined rock on a lofty mountain, and left 
the maiden alone on the summit ; the nuptial 
torches, with which they had lighted their way, 
were now extinguished in their tears, and 
thrown aside ; the ceremony was at an end, and 
with drooping heads they took their homeward 
way. As for her wretched parents, sinking un- 
der the weight of a calamity so great, they shut 
themselves up in their darkened palace, and 
abandoned themselves to perpetual night. Mean- 
while, as Psyche lay trembling and weeping in 
dismay on the summit of the rock, the mild 
breeze of the gently-blowing Zephyr played 
round her garments, fluttering and gradually 
expanding them till they lifted her up, and the 
god, wafting her with his tranquil breath adown 
the lofty mountain side, laid her softly on the 
flowing turf in the lap of the valley. 




SECOND PART. 

PSYCHE, delightfully reclining in the pleas- 
ant and grassy spot, upon a bed of dewy 
herbage, the place to which the gentle Zephyr 
had conveyed her, felt her extreme agitation of 
mind allayed, and sank into a sweet sleep, from 
which she awoke refreshed in body, and with a 
mind more composed. She then espied a grove, 
closely planted with vast and lofty trees ; and 
she also discovered a fountain in the middle of 
the grove, with water limpid as crystal. Near 
the fall of the fountain there was a kingly pal- 
ace, not raised by human hands, but by divine 
skill. You might know, from the very entrance 
of the palace, that you were looking upon the 
splendid and delightful abode of some celestial 
being. For the lofty ceilings, curiously arched 

(22) 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 23 

with cedar and ivory, were supported by golden 
columns. The walls were incrusted all over 
with silver carving, with wild beasts and do- 
mestic animals of all kinds, presenting them- 
selves to the view of those who entered the 
palace. A wonderful man was he, a demigod ; 
nay, surely, a god, who, with such exquisite 
subtilty of art, moulded such vast quantities of 
silver into so various forms. 

The very pavement itself consisted of pre- 
cious stones cut out and arranged so as to form 
pictures of divers kinds. Blessed, thrice blessed, 
those who can tread gems and bracelets under 
foot ! The other parts, as well, of this palace of 
vast extent, were precious beyond all computa- 
tion ; and the walls, being everywhere strength- 
ened with bars of gold, shone with their own 
lustre, so that, even were the sun to withhold 
his light, the palace could make for itself a 
day of its own; so effulgent were the chambers, 
the porticos, and the doors. The furniture, too, 
was on a scale commensurate with the majesty 
of this abode ; so that it might well be looked 
upon as a palace built by mighty Jove, where 
he mio:ht dwell anions' mankind. 



24 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

Invited by the delightful appearance of the 
place, Psyche approached it, and, gradually 
taking courage, stepped over the threshold. 
The beauty of what she beheld lured her on, 
and everything filled her with admiration. In 
another part of the palace she beheld magnifi- 
cent repositories, stored with immense riches ; 
nothing, in fact, exists which was not there 
to be found. But besides the admiration which 
such enormous wealth excited, it was particu- 
larly surprising that this treasury of the uni- 
versal world was protected by no chain, no bar, 
no guard. 

Here, while Psyche's gaze was ravished with 
delight, a bodiless voice thus addressed her : 
" Why, lady," it said, " are you astonished at 
such vast riches? All are yours. Eetire there- 
fore to your chamber, and refresh your wearied 
limbs on your couch, and, when you think 
proper, repair to the bath ; for we, whose voices 
you now hear, are your handmaidens, and will 
carefully attend to all your commands, and, 
when we have dressed you, a royal banquet 
will be placed before you without delay." 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 25 

Psyche was sensible of the goodness of divine 
providence, and, obedient to the admonitions of 
the unembodied voices, relieved her fatigue, first 
with sleep, and afterwards with the bath. After 
this, perceiving, close at hand, a semicircular 
dais with a raised seat, and what seemed to be 
the apparatus for a banquet intended for her 
refreshment, she readily took her place ; where- 
upon sparkling nectareous wines, and numerous 
dishes containing various kinds of dainties, were 
immediately served up, impelled, as it seemed, 
by some spiritual impulse, for there were no 
visible attendants. Not one human being could 
she see. She only heard words that were uttered, 
and had voices alone for her servants. After 
an exquisite banquet was served some one 
entered, and sang unseen, while another struck 
the lyre, which was no more visible than him- 
self. Then a swell of voices, as of a multitude 
singing in full chorus, was wafted to her ears, 
though not one of the vocalists could she 
descry. 

After these delights had ceased, and the day 
departed, Psyche retired to bed ; and about 



26 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

midnight a certain gentle murmuring sound fell 
upon her ears. Then, alarmed for her honor, 
in consequence of the profound solitude of the 
place, she trembled and was filled with terror, 
and dreaded that of which she was ignorant 
more than any misfortune. And now her un- 
known bridegroom ascended the couch, made 
Psyche his wife, and hastily left her before 
break of day. Immediately the attendant voices 
of the bedchamber came to aid the wounded 
modesty of the new-made bride. This course 
was continued for a length of time ; and, as by 
nature it has been so ordained, the novelty, 
by its constant repetition, afforded her delight, 
and the sound of the voices was the solace of 
her solitude. 



THIED PAET, 



IN the mean time, the parents of Psyche were 
wasting their old ao;e in sorrow and lamen- 
tation ; and, the report of her fate becoming 
more widely extended, her elder sisters had 
learned all the particulars ; whereupon, leaving 
their homes in deep grief, they hastened to visit 
and comfort their parents. On that night did 
Psyche's husband thus address her, — for she 
could discern his presence with her ears and 
hands, though not with her eyes : — 

"Most charming Psyche, dear wife, cruel for- 
tune now threatens you with a deadly peril, 
which needs, I think, to be guarded against with 
the most vigilant attention. For ere long your 
sisters, who are alarmed at the report of your 
death, in their endeavors to discover traces of 

(27) 



28 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

you, will arrive at yonder rock. If, then, you 
should chance to hear their lamentations, make 
them no reply; no, nor even so much as turn 
your eyes towards them. By doing otherwise 
you will cause most grievous sorrow to me, and 
utter destruction to yourself." 

Psyche seemingly assented to what her husband 
had enjoined her, and promised that she would 
act agreeably to his desire. But when he and 
the night had departed together, the poor thing 
consumed the whole day in tears and lamenta- 
tions, exclaiming, over and over again, that she 
was now utterly lost, since, besides being thus 
confined in a splendid prison, deprived of human 
conversation, she was not even allowed to re- 
lieve the minds of her sisters, who were sorrow- 
ing for her, nor, indeed, so much as to see 
them. Without having refreshed herself, there- 
fore, with the bath or with food, or, in fact, 
with any solace whatever, but weeping plente- 
ously, she retired to rest. Shortly afterwards, 
her husband, coming to her bed earlier than 
usual, embraced her as she wept, and thus gently 
reproached her : — 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 29 

"Is this, my Psyche, what you promised me? 
What am I, your husband, henceforth to expect of 
you? What can I now hope for, when neither by 
day nor by night, not even in the midst of our 
conjugal endearments, you cease to be distracted 
with grief? Very well, then, act now just as you 
please, and comply with the baneful dictates of 
your inclination. However, when you begin too 
late to repent, you will recall to mind my serious 
admonitions." 

Upon this, she had recourse to prayers ; and 
threatening that she would put an end to herself 
if her request were denied, she extorted from her 
husband a consent that she might see her sisters, 
to soothe their grief, and enjoy their conversation. 
This he yielded to the entreaties of his new-made 
wife, and he gave her permission, besides, to pre- 
sent her sisters with as much gold and as many 
jewels as she pleased ; but he warned her repeat- 
edly and so often as to terrify her, never, on any 
occasion, to be persuaded, by the pernicious advice 
of her sisters, to make any inquiries concerning 
the form of her husband, lest, by a sacrilegious 
curiosity, she might cast herself down from such 



30 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

an exalted position of good fortune, and never 
again enjoy his love. 

She thanked her husband for his indulgence ; 
and now, having quite recovered her spirits, she 
said, "Ah ! I would suffer death a hundred times 
rather than be deprived of your most delightful 
company, for I love you, yes, I dote upon you to 
desperation, whoever you are, ay, even as I love 
my own soul, nor would I give you in exchange 
for Cupid himself. But this also I beseech you 
to grant to my prayers ; bid Zephyr, this servant 
of yours, convey my sisters to me, in the same 
manner in which he brought me hither." Then, 
pressing his lips with persuasive kisses, murmur- 
ing endearing words, and enfolding him with her 
clinging limbs, she called him coaxingly, "My 
sweet, my husband, dear soul of thy Psyche." 
Overcome by the power of love, her husband 
yielded reluctantly, and promised all she desired. 
After this, upon the approach of morning, he 
acfain vanished from the arms of his wife. 

Meanwhile, the sisters, having inquired the 
way to the rock on which Psyche was abandoned, 
hastened thither ; and there they wept and beat 



THE STORY OF CUPID AXD PSYCHE. 31 

their breasts till the rocks and crags resounded 
with their lamentations. They called to their 
unfortunate sister, by her own name, until the 
shrill sound of their shrieks, descending the de- 
clivities of the mountain, reached the ears of 
Psyche, who ran out of her palace in delirious 
trepidation, and exclaimed, — 

ff Why do you needlessly afflict yourselves with 
doleful lamentations? Here am I, whom you 
mourn ; cease those dismal accents, and now at 
last dry up those tears that have so long bedewed 
your cheeks, since you may now embrace her 
whom you have been lamenting." 

Then, summoning Zephyr, she acquaints him 
with her husband's commands, in obedience to 
which, instantly wafting them on his gentlest 
breeze, he safely conveyed them to Psyche. Now 
do they enjoy mutual embraces, and hurried 
kisses ; and their tears, that had ceased to flow, 
return, after a time, summoned forth by joy. 
"Now come," said Psyche, " enter my dwelling in 
gladness, and cheer up your afflicted spirits with 
your Psyche." Having thus said, she showed 
them the vast treasures of her golden palace, made 



32 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

their ears acquainted with the numerous retinue 
of voices that were obedient to her commands, 
and sumptuously refreshed them in a most beauti- 
ful bath, and with the delicacies of a divine ban- 
quet ; until, satiated with this copious abundance 
of celestial riches, they began to nourish envy in 
the lowest depths of their breasts. One of them, 
especially, very minute and curious, persisted in 
making inquiries about the master of this celestial 
wealth, what kind of person and what sort of 
husband he made. 

Psyche, however, would by no means violate her 
husband's injunctions, or disclose the secrets of 
her breast ; but, devising a tale for the occasion, 
told them that he was a young man, and very good 
looking, with cheeks as yet only shaded with soft 
down, and that he was, for the most part, engaged 
in rural occupations, and hunting on the moun- 
tains. And lest, by any slip in the course of the 
protracted conversation, her secret counsels might 
be betrayed, having loaded them with ornaments 
of gold and jewelled necklaces, she called Zephyr, 
and ordered him at once to convey them back 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 33 

This being immediately executed, these modish 
sisters, as they were returning home, now burning 
more and more with the rancor of envy, con- 
versed much with each other ; at last one of them 
thus began: "Do but see how blind, cruel, and 
unjust, Fortune has proved ! Were you, my sister, 
delighted to find that we, born of the same parents, 
had met with such a different lot ? We, indeed, who 
are the elder, are delivered over as bondmaids l 
to foreign husbands, and live in banishment from 
our home, our native land, and our parents ; and 
this, the youngest of us all, the last production of 
our mother's exhausted powers, is raised to the 
enjoyment of such boundless wealth, and has a 
god for her husband, she who does not even know 
how to enjoy, in a proper manner, such an abun- 
dance of blessings. You saw, sister, what a vast 

1 It was a prevalent notion with many of the ancients, that 
the wife stood towards the husband in the relation of a bondmaid. 
In reference to this notion, Isidore, in his Origines, informs 
us, " One of the ceremonies of marriage anciently was this : 
the husband and the wife purchased each other, in order that 
the latter might not be considered as a servant." We reckon 
this ancient custom is practised in our own day ; whether for 
the same reason or not we leave the reader to ascertain. 

3 



34 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

number of necklaces there were in the house, and 
of what enormous value, what splendid dresses, 
what brilliant gems, and what heaps of gold she 
treads upon in every direction. If, besides all 
this, she possesses a husband as handsome as she 
asserts him to be, there lives not in the whole 
world a happier woman than she. Perhaps, how- 
ever, upon continued acquaintance, and when his 
affection is strengthened, her husband, who is a 
god, will make her a goddess as well. By Her- 
cules ! it is so already ; she comported and de- 
meaned herself just like one : the woman must 
needs assume a lofty bearing, and give herself the 
airs of a goddess, who has voices for her attend- 
ants, and commands the very winds themselves. 
But I, wretched creature, am tied to a husband 
who, in the first place, is older than my father, 
and who, in the next place, is balder than a pump- 
kin, and more dwarfish than any boy, and who 
fastens up every part of his house with bolts and 
chains." 

"But I," replied the other sister, "have got to 
put up with a husband who is tormented and crip- 
pled with gout, and who seldom rewards my 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 35 

attention and love, while I have to be everlastingly- 
rubbing his distorted and chalky fingers with filthy 
fomentations, nasty rags, and outrageous poultices ; 
scalding these delicate hands, and acting the part, 
not of a wife, but of a female doctor. You, sister, 
seem to bear all this with a patient, or rather a ser- 
vile spirit, for I shall speak out fully what I think ; 
but, for my part, I can no longer endure that such 
a fortunate destiny should have so undeservedly 
fallen to her lot. And then, recollect in what a 
haughty and arrogant manner she behaved towards 
us, and how, by her boasting and immoderate 
ostentation, she betrayed a heart swelling with 
pride, and how reluctantly she threw us a trifling 
portion of her immense riches ; and immediately 
after, being weary of our company, ordered us to 
be turned out, and to be puffed and whisked away. 
But may I be no woman, nor indeed may I 
breathe, if I do not hurl her down headlong from 
such mighty wealth. And if this contumely of- 
fered to us stings you, too, as it ought, let us both 
join in forming some effective plan. In the first 
place, then, let us not show these things that we 
have got, either to our parents or to any one else ; 



36 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

in fact ? we are to know nothing at all about her 
safety. It is quite enough that we ourselves have 
seen what it vexes us to have seen, without having 
to spread the report of her good fortune among 
our parents and all the people ; for, in fact, those 
persons are not wealthy whose riches no one is 
acquainted with. She shall know that in us she 
has got no handmaids, but elder sisters. For the 
present, then, let us away to our husbands, and 
revisit our poor and plain dwellings, that, after 
long and earnest consideration, we may return the 
better prepared to humble her pride." 

This evil intention against the good Psyche 
was very satisfactory to her two wicked sisters. 
Concealing those choice and sumptuous presents 
which they had received from her, tearing their 
hair, and beating their faces, which well de- 
served such treatment, they redoubled their pre- 
tended grief. In this manner, too, hastily leav- 
ing their parents, after having set their sorrows 
bleeding afresh, they returned to their homes, 
swelling with malicious rage, and plotting wicked 
schemes, nay, actual parricide, against their in- 
nocent sister. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 37 

In the mean time, Psyche's unknown husband 
once more admonished her thus in their noc- 
turnal conversation : " Are you aware what a 
mighty peril Fortune is preparing to launch 
against you from a distance, one too, which, 
unless you take strenuous precautions against it, 
will ere long confront you hand to hand? Those 
perfidious she-wolves are planning base strata- 
gems against you with all their might, to the 
end that they may prevail upon you to view 
my features, which, as I have often told you, 
if you once see, you will see no more. If, 
then, those most abominable vampires come 
again, armed with their baneful intentions, — and 
that they will come I know full well, — do not 
hold any converse whatever with them ; but 
if, through your natural frankness and tender- 
ness of disposition, you are not able to do this, 
at all events, be careful not to listen to or an- 
swer any inquiries about your husband. For 
before long we shall have an increase to our 
family ; and infantine as you are, you are preg- 
nant with another infant, which, if you preserve 
my secret in silence, will be born divine, but 
if you profane it, will be mortal." 



38 THE BIRTH OE PLEASURE. 

Radiant with joy at this news, Psyche exulted 
in the glory of this future pledge of love, and 
in the dignity of a mother's name. Anxiously 
did she reckon the increasing tale of the days 
and the elapsing months, and wondered, in sim- 
ple ignorance, at the structure of this unknown 
burden, and how her wealthy womb could have 
gathered such an increase. 

But now those pests and most dire Furies, 
breathing viperous virulence, were hastening to- 
wards her with the speed of ruthless hate. Then, 
again, her husband warned his Psyche to this ef- 
fect, during his brief visit : " The day of trial, and 
this most utter calamity, are now at hand. Your 
own malicious sex, and your own blood, in arms 
against you, have struck their camp, drawn up 
their forces in battle array, and sounded the 
charge. Now are your wicked sisters aiming 
with the drawn sword at your throat. Alas ! 
darling Psyche, by what mighty dangers are we 
now surrounded ! Take pity on yourself and on 
me; and by an inviolable silence, rescue your 
home, your husband, yourself, and that little 
one of ours, from this impending destruction. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 39 

Shun those wicked women, whom, after the 
deadly hatred which they have conceived against 
you, and having trampled under foot the ties 
of blood, it were not right to call sisters ; neither 
see nor listen to them, when, like Sirens, hang- 
ing over the crag, they shall make the rocks 
resound with their ill-omened voices." 

Psyche, in accents interrupted by sobs and 
tears, thus replied: "Already, methinks, you 
have experienced convincing proofs of my fidelity 
and power of keeping a secret ; and the con- 
stancy of my mind shall be no less approved 
of by you in the present instance. Only order 
Zephyr once again to discharge his duties, and 
at least grant me a sight of my sisters, by way 
of compensation for your own hallowed form. 
By those aromatic locks, curling on every side ; 
by those cheeks, tender, smooth, and so like my 
own ; by your breast that glows with I know not 
what a warmth ; and by my hopes that in this 
babe, at least, I may recognize your features, I be- 
seech you to comply with the affectionate prayers 
of your anxious suppliant ; indulge me with the 
gratification of embracing my sisters, and refresh 



40 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

with joyousness the soul of Psyche, who is so 
devoted and so dear to you. Then no longer 
I shall be anxious to view your features. Hence- 
forth, not even the shades of night will have 
any effect on me. I clasp you in my arms, 
and you are my light." 

Enchanted by these words, and by her hon- 
eyed embraces, her husband brushed away her 
tears with his locks, and assuring her that he 
would do as she wished, instantly anticipated 
the light of the dawning day by flight. But the 
pair of sisters, who had engaged in this con- 
spiracy, not having so much as visited their 
parents, direct their course with precipitate haste 
straight from the ships towards the rock, and 
not waiting for the presence of the buoyant 
breeze, leap into the abyss with ungovernable 
rashness. Zephyr, however, not forgetful of the 
royal commands, received them, though reluc- 
tantly, in the bosom of the breathing breeze, 
and laid them on the ground. 

With rapid steps, and without a moment's de- 
lay, they' entered the palace, and deceitfully 
screening themselves under the name of sister, 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 41 

embraced their prey ; then, covering a whole 
storehouse of deeply-hidden treachery beneath 
a joyous countenance, they thus addressed her 
in flattering terms : " Psyche, you are not quite 
so slender as you used to be. Why, you will 
be a mother before long. Can you fancy what 
delight you have in store for us in that reticule 
of yours? With what exceeding joy you will 
gladden our whole house ! O, how delighted we 
shall be to nurse this golden baby ! for if it only 
equals the beauty of its parents, it will be born 
a perfect Cupid." 

Thus, by a false appearance of affection, they 
gradually stole upon the heart of their sister, 
while she, after making them sit a while to 
recover from the fatigue of their journey, and 
refresh themselves with warm baths, regaled them 
in a marvellously splendid manner with innu- 
merable exquisite dainties. She bade the harp 
discourse, and its chords were struck ; flutes to 
play, and they were heard ; vocalists to sing in 
concert, and they sang ; and though invisible, 
they ravished the souls of the hearers with the 
most delicious music. 



42 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

But the malice of those wicked women was 
not lulled to rest or even softened by the dulcet 
sweetness of the music ; but, shaping their con- 
versation so as to lead Psyche into the intended 
snare, they began insidiously to inquire what 
sort of a person her husband was, and from 
what family he was descended. She, in her 
extreme simplicity, having forgotten her former 
account, invented a new story about her husband, 
and said he was a native of the adjoining prov- 
ince ; that he was a merchant, with abundance 
of money; a man of middle age, with a few 
gray hairs sprinkled here and there on his head. 
Then, abruptly terminating the conversation, she 
again committed them to their windy vehicle, 
after having loaded them with costly presents. 



FOURTH PART. 



WHILE the sisters were returning home- 
wards, soaring aloft on the tranquil breath 
of Zephyrus, they thus interchanged their thoughts 
with each other : w What are we to say, sister, 
of the monstrous lies of that silly creature ? At 
one time her husband is a young man, with the 
down just beginning to show itself on his chin ; 
at another, he is of middle age, and his hair 
begins to be silvered with gray. Who can this 
be, whom a short space of time thus suddenly 
changes into an old man? You may depend 
upon it, sister, that this most abominable woman 
has either invented this lie to deceive us, or 
else that she does not herself know what is the 
appearance of her husband. But whichever of 
these is the case, she must as soon as possible 

(43) 



44 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

be deprived of these riclies. And yet, if she 
really is ignorant of the appearance of her hus- 
band, she must, no doubt, have married a god ; 
and then, through this pregnancy of hers, she 
will be presenting us with a god. At all events, 
if she does happen — which heaven forbid — to 
become the mother of a divine infant, I shall 
instantly hang myself. Let us, therefore, in the 
mean time return to our parents, and let us 
devise some scheme, as nearly as possible in 
accordance with the import of our present con- 
versation." 

The sisters, thus inflamed with passion, called 
on their parents in a careless and disdainful 
manner, and after being kept awake all night 
by the turbulence of their spirits, made all haste 
at morning to the rock, whence, by the usual 
assistance of the breeze, they descended swiftly 
to Psyche, and, with tears squeezed out by rub- 
bing their eyelids, thus craftily addressed her: — 

" Happy indeed are you, and fortunate in your 
very ignorance of a misfortune of such magni- 
tude. There you sit, without a thought upon your 
danger; while we, who watch over your interests 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 45 

with the most vigilant care, are in anguish at 
your lost condition. For we have learned for a 
truth, nor can we, as being sharers in your sor- 
rows and misfortunes, conceal it from you, that 
it is an enormous serpent, gliding along in many 
folds and coils, with a neck swollen with deadly 
venom, and prodigious gaping jaws, that secretly 
sleeps with you by night. Do for a moment re- 
call to mind the Pythian oracle, which declared 
that you were destined to become the wife of a 
fierce and truculent animal. Besides, many of 
the husbandmen, who are in the habit of hunting 
all round the country, and ever so many of the 
neighbors, have observed him returning home 
from his feeding-place in the evening, and swim- 
ming across the shoals of the neighborina; stream. 
All declare, too, that he will not long continue 
to pamper you with delicacies, but that as soon 
as ever your pregnancy shall have arrived at 
maturity, he will devour you, as being in that 
state a most exquisite morsel. Wherefore it is 
now for you to consider whether you shall think 
fit to listen to us, who are so anxious for your 
precious safety, and avoiding death, live with us 



46 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

secure from danger, or be buried in the entrails 
of a most savage monster. But if you are fasci- 
nated by the vocal solitude of this country retreat, 
or the charms of clandestine embraces so filthy 
and perilous, and the endearments of a poisonous 
serpent, we have, at all events, done our duty 
towards you like affectionate sisters." 

Poor simple, tender-hearted Psyche was aghast 
with horror at this dreadful story ; and, quite 
bereft of her senses, lost all remembrance of her 
husband's admonitions and of her own promises, 
and hurled herself headlong into the very abyss 
of calamity. Trembling, therefore, with pale 
and livid cheeks, and with an almost lifeless voice, 
she faltered out these broken words : — 

" Dearest sisters, you have acted towards me 
as you ought, and with your usual affectionate 
care ; and indeed it appears to me that those who 
gave you this information have not invented a 
falsehood. For, in fact, I have never yet beheld 
my husband's face, nor do I know at all whence 
he comes. I only hear him speak in an under- 
tone by night, and have to bear with a husband 
of an unknown appearance, and one that has an 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 47 

utter aversion to the light of day : I consequently 
have full reason to be of your opinion, that he 
may be some monster or other. Besides, he is 
always terrifying me from attempting to behold 
him, and threatens some shocking misfortune as 
the consequence of indulging any curiosity to 
view his features. Now, therefore, if you are 
able to give any saving aid to your sister in this 
perilous emergency, defer it not for a moment." 
Finding the approaches thus laid open, and 
their sister's heart exposed all naked to their at- 
tacks, these wicked women thought the time was 
come to sally out from their covered approach, 
and attack the timorous thoughts of the simple 
girl with the drawn sword of deceit. Accordingly, 
one of them thus began : " Since the ties of blood 
oblige us to have no fear of peril before our eyes 
when your safety is to be insured, we will dis- 
cover to you the only method which will lead to 
your preservation, and one which has been con- 
sidered by us over and over again. On that side 
of the bed where you are accustomed to lie, 
secretly conceal a very sharp razor, one that you 
have whetted to a keen edge by passing it over 



48 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

the palm of your hand ; and hide likewise under 
some covering of the surrounding tapestry a 
lamp, well trimmed and full of oil, and shining 
with a bright light. Make these preparations 
with the utmost secrecy, and after the monster 
has glided into the bed as usual, when he is now 
stretched out at length, fast asleep, and breathing 
heavily, then slide out of bed, go softly along 
with bare feet and on tiptoe, free the lamp from 
its place of concealment in the dark, and borrow 
the aid of its light to execute your noble purpose ; 
then at once, boldly raising your right hand, 
bring down the keen weapon with all your might, 
and cut off the head of the noxious serpent at 
the nape of the neck. Nor shall our assistance 
be wanting to you ; for we will keep anxious 
watch, and be with you the very instant you shall 
have effected your own safety by his death ; and 
then, immediately bringing you away with all 
these things, we will wed you, to your wish, with 
a human creature like yourself." 

Having with such pernicious language inflamed 
the mind of their sister, and wrought her to a 
perfect pitch of determination, they deserted her, 



THE STOEY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 49 

fearing exceedingly even to be in the neighbor- 
hood of such a catastrophe ; and, being laid upon 
the rock by the wonted impulse of their winged 
bearer, they immediately hurried thence with im- 
petuous haste, at once got on board their ships, 
and sailed away. 

But Psyche, now left alone, except so far as 
a person who is agitated by maddening Furies 
is not alone, fluctuated in sorrow like a stormy 
sea ; and though her purpose was fixed, and her 
heart was resolute when she first began to make 
preparations for the impious work, her mind now 
wavers, and is distracted with numerous appre- 
hensions at her unhappy fate. She hurries, she 
procrastinates ; now she is bold, now tremulous ; 
now dubious, now agitated by rage ; and what is 
the most singular thing of all, in the same being 
she hates the lieast, — loves the husband. Never- 
theless, as the evening drew to a close, she 
hurriedly prepared the instruments of her ruth- 
less enterprise. 

The night came, and with it came her husband ; 
and after the excitement of his presence was 
over, he fell into a deep sleep. Then Psyche, 



50 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

to whose weak body and spirit the cruel influence 
of fate imparted unusual strength, uncovered the 
lamp, and seized the knife with masculine courage. 
But the instant she advanced the lamp, and the 
mysteries of the couch stood revealed, she be- 
held the very gentlest and sweetest of all wild 
creatures, even Cupid himself, the beautiful God 
of Love, there fast asleep ; at sight of whom, 
the joyous flame of the lamp shone with re- 
doubled vigor, and the sacrilegious razor repented 
the keenness of its edge. 

But as for Psyche, astounded at such a sight, 
losing the control of her senses, faint, deadly 
pale, and trembling all over, she fell on her 
knees, and made an attempt to hide the blade in 
her own bosom ; and this, no doubt, she would 
have done, had not the blade, dreading the com- 
mission of such a crime, glided out of her rash 
hand. And now, faint and unnerved as she was, 
she felt herself refreshed at heart by gazing 
upon the beauty of those divine features. She 
looked upon the genial locks of. his golden head, 
teeming with ambrosial perfume, the orbed curls 
that strayed over his milk-white neck and roseate 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 51 

cheeks, and fell gracefully entangled, some before, 
some behind ; causing the very light of the lamp 
itself to flicker by their radiant splendor. On 
the shoulders of the volatile god were dewy wings 
of brilliant whiteness ; and though the pinions 
were at rest, yet the tender down that fringed 
the feathers wantoned to and fro in tremulous, 
unceasing play. The rest of his body was smooth 
and beautiful, and such as Venus could not have 
repented of giving birth to. At the foot of the 
bed lay his bow, his quiver, and his arrows, the 
auspicious weapons of the mighty god. 

While, with insatiable wonder and curiosity, 
Psyche is examining and admiring her husband's 
weapons, she draws one of the arrows out of 
the quiver, and touches the point with the tip 
of her thumb to try its sharpness ; but, hap- 
pening to press too hard, — for her hand still 
trembled, — she punctured the skin, so that some 
tiny drops of rosy blood oozed forth ; and thus 
did Psyche, without knowing it, fall in love 
with Love. Then, burning more and more with 
desire for Cupid, gazing passionately on his face, 



52 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

and fondly kissing him again and again, her 
only fear was lest he should wake too soon. 

But while she hung over him, bewildered with 
delight so extreme at heart, the lamp, whether 
from treachery or baneful envy, or because it 
longed to touch, and to kiss, as it were, such 
a beautiful object, spirted a drop of scalding oil 
from the summit of its flame upon the right 
shoulder of the god. The god, thus burned, 
sprang from the bed, and, seeing the disgraceful 
tokens of forfeited fidelity, without a word, van- 
ished from the eyes and arms of his most un- 
happy wife. But Psyche, the instant he arose, 
seized hold of his right leg with both hands, 
and hung on to him, a wretched appendage to 
his flight through the regions of the air, till at 
last her strength failed her, and she fell to the 
earth. 



FIFTH PAET, 



HER divine lover, however, not deserting 
her as she lay on the ground, alighted 
upon a neighboring cypress tree, and thus an- 
grily addressed her from its lofty top : " O 
simple, simple Psyche, for you I have been un- 
mindful of the commands of my mother, Venus ; 
for when she bade me cause you to be infatuated 
with passion for some base and abject man, I 
chose rather to fly to you myself as a lover. 
That in this I acted inconsiderately I know but 
too well. I, that redoubtable archer, have 
wounded myself with my own arrow, and have 
made you my wife, that I, forsooth, might be 
thought by you to be a serpent, and that you 
might cut off my head, which bears those very 
eyes which have so doted upon you. This 

(53) 



54 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

was the danger that I told you again and again 
to be on your guard against ; this was what I 
so benevolently forewarned you of. But, as for 
those choice counsellors of yours, they shall 
speedily feel my vengeance for giving you such 
pernicious advice ; but you I will punish only 
by my flight." And, so saying, he soared aloft, 
and flew away. 

Meanwhile Psyche lay prostrate on the ground, 
gazing on the flight of her husband as long as 
ever he remained in sight, afflicting her mind 
with the most bitter lamentations. But when 
the reiterated movement 1 of his wings had borne 
her husband through the immensity of space till 
she saw him no more, she threw herself head- 
long from the bank of the adjacent river into 
its stream. But the gentle river, honoring the 
god, who is in the habit of imparting his warmth 
to the waters 2 themselves, and fearing his power, 

1 In the original, "remigio." " Remigium alarum" — the 
rowing of the wings — is a phrase much used by the classical 
writers. 

2 That is to say, to the deities and nymphs who inhabit 
them — not to mention the fish. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 55 

bore her on the surface of a harmless wave to 
the bank, and laid her safe on its flowery turf. 
It chanced that just then the rural god Pan 
was seated on the margin of the river, embracing 
the goddess Canna, 1 and teaching her to sing all 
kinds of pleasant ditties. Close by, some she- 
goats gambolled as they browsed along the grassy 
bank. The goat-legged god, aware of Psyche's 
misfortune, kindly called the fainting, heart- 
stricken girl to him, and thus comforted her in 
soothing language : "Pretty damsel, though I am 
a countryman and a shepherd, still, through the 
benefit of a prolonged old age, I have acquired 
considerable experience : wherefore, if I rightly 
conjecture, — a thing that wise men, no doubt, 
consider as good as the power of divination, — 
if I rightly conjecture, from those tottering and 
repeatedly faltering steps, from the excessive pale- 
ness of your countenance, from your frequent 
sighs, and from the sad expression of your eyes, 
you are desperately in love. Listen, then, to 

1 This alludes to the well-known fable of Syrinx and Pan. 
Canna is the Latin for "cane " or " reed." 



56 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

me : attempt no more to put an end to yourself 
by leaping from a precipice, or by any kind of 
self-inflicted death ; cease to grieve, lay aside 
your sorrow, and rather in your prayers worship 
Cupid, the greatest of the gods, and, as he is a 
delicate and spoiled stripling, use your best en- 
deavors to please him by soft obsequiousness 
and soothing attentions." 

The shepherd god having thus said, Psyche 
made him no reply, but simply paying her hom- 
age to the propitious divinity, departed from the 
spot. After she had toiled some little way along 
the road, she came at last to an unknown by- 
path, and, following it, she arrived at a certain 
city, of which the husband of one of her sisters 
was king. On learning this circumstance, Psyche 
requested that her arrival might be announced to 
her sister. Being immediately conducted to her, 
when they had mutually embraced, and the forms 
of salutation were over, on her sister inquiring 
the cause of her visit, she replied, — 

" Of course you remember the advice you gave 
me, when you persuaded me to destroy with a 
sharp razor the beast that lay with me under the 



THE STORY OF CUPID AXD PSYCHE. 57 

assumed name of a husband, before lie should swal- 
low me, poor creature, in his voracious maw. I 
proceeded to do as we had arranged ; but as soon 
as ever I discerned his features by the light of 
the lamp, I beheld a sight truly wonderful and 
divine — the very son himself of the goddess Ve- 
nus, Cupid, I say, sunk in tranquil repose. Just, 
however, as, struck with astonishment at the sight 
of such a boundless blessing, and in utter ecstasy 
through an over-abundance of pleasure, I was at 
a loss how sufficiently to enjoy my fortune, by a 
most shocking accident the lamp spirted out some 
scalding oil upon his right shoulder. Instantly 
awakened by the pain, and seeing me armed with 
the weapon and the light, ? For this shameful con- 
duct,' said he, ? quit my bed this instant I di- 
vorce you forever. I w T ill at once marry your 
sister,' — mentioning you expressly by name ; 
and then he ordered Zephyr to waft me beyond 
the precincts of the palace." 

Scarcely had Psyche ended her narrative, when 
the other, goaded by maddening lust and baneful 
envy, deceived her husband by a story which she 
had ready invented, as though she had heard 



58 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

something about the death of her parents, and, 
immediately embarking, proceeded to the same 
rock. When she arrived there, though another 
wind was blowing, yet, elated with blind hope, 
she exclaimed, " Receive me, Cupid, a wife wor- 
thy of thee; and thou, Zephyr, acknowledge thy 
mistress." Then, with a great bound, she threw 
herself headlong from the mountain ; but neither 
alive nor dead was she able to reach the spot 
she sought. For her limbs were torn in pieces 
by the crags, and scattered here and there as 
she fell ; her entrails were rent asunder, just as 
she deserved ; and so furnishing a banquet for 
birds and beasts of prey, she perished. 

Nor was the other sister's punishment long 
delayed, for Psyche's wandering steps led her to 
another city, in which that sister dwelt ; and she, 
also, deceived by the same tale, and impiously 
desirous of supplanting Psyche as a wife, hastened 
to the rock, and there met with her death in a 
similar manner. 



SIXTH PAET 



IN the mean time, while Psyche wandered 
through various nations, anxiously searching 
for Cupid, he himself was confined to his mother's 
bed by the anguish of the fatal lamp. A snow- 
white sea-gull, the bird which skims along the 
waves of the sea, flapping them with its wings, 
dived down into the bosom of the ocean. There, 
approaching Venus, as she bathed and swam, he 
informed her that her son was confined to his bed 
by a severe burn, was in great pain, and his cure 
was doubtful ; that all sorts of scandalous reports 
were flying about concerning the whole family 
of Venus ; and it was in everybody's mouth 
that mother and son had gone off, the one to a 
mountain to carry on an intrigue with a girl, 
the other to amuse herself with swimming 

(59) 



60 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

in the sea. In consequence of all this, Pleasure, 
Grace, and Elegance were no longer to be found, 
but everything was rude, rustic, and slovenly ; 
nuptial ties, social friendships, and love of 
children, existed no more ; but unbounded dis- 
order, and a bitter loathing of sordid alliances. 
Thus did this talkative and very meddling bird 
chatter in the ear of Venus, to lower her son 
in her estimation. 

Venus, exceedingly enraged, instantly ex- 
claimed, " So, then, this hopeful son of mine has 
already got some mistress or other. Come, now, 
you who are the only one to serve me with true 
affection, what is the name of her who has thus 
decoyed the ingenuous and beardless boy ? Is she 
one of the tribe of Nymphs, or of the number of 
the Hours, or of the choir of the Muses, or belong- 
ing to my own train of Graces?" 

The talkative bird was only too ready to reply, 
"I am not quite sure, mistress. I think, though, 
if I remember right, he is said to have fallen 
desperately in love with a girl whose name is 
Psyche." 

"What!" exclaimed Venus, in a burst of 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 61 

indignation ; w of all wenches in the world, is he 
in love with Psyche, the usurper of my beauty 
and the rival of my fame? And by way of 
additional insult, he takes me for a go-between, 
through whose instrumentality he made acquaint- 
ance with the girl." 

Thus exclaiming, she forthwith emerged from 
the sea, and hastened to her golden chamber, 
where finding her son lying ill, as she had been 
informed, she exclaimed as loud as she could, 
before she entered the door, w This is pretty 
conduct, indeed ! and very becoming our digni- 
fied birth, and your sobriety of character. In 
the first place, to trample under foot the com- 
mands of your mother, your sovereign mistress, 
and refrain from tormenting my enemy with an 
ignoble love ; and then, at your age, a mere boy, 
to take her to your profligate and immature 
embraces, on purpose, I suppose, that I might 
endure the vexation of having my enemy for my 
daughter-in-law. But doubtless you suppose, 
you scamp, you wretch, you unlovable boy, 
that you are my only high-born son, and that I 
am too old to have another. I would have you 



62 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

know, then, that I will have another son, a much 
better one than you; nay, what's more, that 
you may be fully sensible of the disgrace, I will 
adopt one of the sons of my slaves, and to him 
will I give those wings and that torch, that bow 
and those arrows, and all that equipment which 
I bestowed on you for purposes very different 
from these ; for no part whatever of this appara- 
tus was supplied at your father's expense. But 
from your very childhood, you have been badly 
inclined, and have always had pugnacious hands. 
Many a time, too, have you most disrespectfully 
struck your elders ; and even myself, your 
mother, myself, I say, you parricide, you are 
everyday exposing before the world. Many a 
time you have struck me, and you pay no more 
attention to me than if I were a widow ; you 
do not even fear your step-father, that most brave 
and mighty warrior ; quite the contrary, indeed, 
for you are evermore setting him after the 
maidens, to my torment. But I will make you 
repent of these tricks of yours, and you shall find 
this match a sour and bitter one. 

"But now, made a laughing-stock of, what 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 63 

shall I do? Whither betake myself? How shall 
I coerce this slippery little lizard ? Shall I solicit 
the assistance of my old foe, Sobriety, whom 
I have so often affronted for the sake of this 
spoiled boy ? Must I have intercourse with that 
coarse, vulgar being? I shudcier at the thought; 
and yet the comfort of revenge is not to be 
despised, come whence it may. I must have 
recourse, then, to her, and to her alone, that she 
may most soundly chastise this scamp. She shall 
rifle his quiver, blunt his arrows, unstring his 
bow, extinguish his torch, ay, and keep his 
body in order by the sharpest remedies. When 
I shall have shorn off those golden locks which 
these hands have so often sorted, and have clipped 
off those pinions which I have dyed in my 
bosom's nectareous fountain, then, and not till 
then, I shall believe that atonement has been 
made for the injury I have received." 

Having thus vented her wrath, she rushed im- 
petuously out of doors, and was immediately ac- 
costed by Ceres and Juno, who, observing her 
angry countenance, asked her why she marred 
the beauty of her sparkling eyes by such a sullen 



64 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

frown. " Most opportunely are you come," she 
replied, " to appease that violence which has taken 
possession of my raging bosom. Inquire for me, 
I beg, with the utmost care and diligence, after 
that runaway vagabond, Psyche ; for the infa- 
mous stories about my family, and the conduct 
of my son, who does not deserve to be named, 
cannot be unknown to you." 

The two goddesses, knowing what had hap- 
pened, thus endeavored to mitigate the rage of 
Venus: "What mighty offence, good mistress, 
has your son committed, that you should thwart 
his pleasures with such stubborn resolution, and 
be impatient to destroy her with whom he is in 
love? Is it a crime if he has freely indulged 
his liking for a pretty girl? Are you ignorant 
of his sex and his youth? Surely you have 
forgotten how many years old he is ; or is it be- 
cause he carries his years so prettily, that you 
would forever fancy him a boy? Is it possible 
that you, who are his mother, and a woman of 
understanding, can persist in prying inquisitively 
into the gayeties of your handsome son, finding 
fault with his indiscretions, taking him to task 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 65 

for his amours, and reproving in him your own 
arts and voluptuous suggestions? But what god 
or what man will bear with you, when you are 
everywhere scattering amorous desires among 
people, and at the same time would restrain the 
gallantries of your own house, and shut up the 
universal magazine of female frailties ? " 

Thus did they, through fear of his darts, flat- 
ter and graciously defend Cupid in his absence. 
But Venus, indignant that her injuries were thus 
treated with ridicule, turned her back upon them, 
and with hasty steps again betook herself to the 
ocean. 

5 



SEVENTH PART. 

PSYCHE, in the mean while, wandered about, 
day and night, restlessly seeking her hus- 
band, and the more anxious to find him, because, 
though she had incurred his anger, she hoped 
to appease him, if not by the tender endearments 
of a wife, at least by entreaties as humble as a 
slave could urge. Perceiving a temple on the 
summit of a lofty mountain, "How can I tell," 
said she, "but yonder may be the residence of 
my lord ? " and immediately she hastened thither, 
while, wayworn and exhausted as she was, hope 
and affection quickened her steps, and gave her 
vigor to climb the highest ridges of the mountain, 
and enter the temple. There she saw blades of 
wheat, some in sheaves, some twisted into chap- 
lets, and ears of barley also. There were scythes 

(66) 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 67 

likewise, and the implements of harvest, but 
all lying scattered about in confusion, just as 
such things are usually thrown down, in the 
heat of summer, from the careless hands of the 
reapers. 

Psyche began carefully to sort all these things, 
and arrange them properly in their several 
places, deeming it her duty not to fail in respect 
for the temples and ceremonies of any deity, 
but to implore the benevolent sympathy of all 
the gods. Bounteous Ceres found her thus 
diligently employed in her temple, and cried to 
her, from a distance, "Ah, poor, unfortunate 
Psyche ! Venus, full of rage, is eagerly track- 
ing your footsteps, craving to inflict upon you 
the deadly penalties and the whole force of her 
divine vengeance. And can you, then, busy 
yourself with my concerns, and think of any- 
thing else but your own safety?" 

Psyche, prostrating herself before the goddess, 
moistening her feet with abundant tears, and 
sweeping the ground with her locks, besought 
her protection with manifold prayers. "I im- 
plore thee," said she, "by thy fruit-bearing right 



68 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

hand, by the joyful ceremonies of harvest, by 
the mysterious rites of thy cists, 1 by the winged 
car of the dragons thy servants, by the furrows 
of the Sicilian soil, by the chariot of the ravisher, 2 
by the earth that closed upon him, by the dark 
descent and unlighted nuptials of Proserpine, 
by the torch-illumined return of thy recovered 
daughter, and by the other mysteries which 
Eleusis, the sanctuary of Attica, conceals in 
silence, — succor, O, succor the life of the 
wretched Psyche, thy suppliant ! Suffer me, 
if for a few days only, to conceal myself in that 
heap of wheat-sheaves, till the raging anger of 
the mighty goddess be mitigated by the lapse of 
time ; or at least until my bodily powers, weak- 
ened by long-continued labor, be renewed by 
an interval of rest." 



1 In the processions of Ceres, at Athens, were carried 
chests or baskets, made of osier, enclosing mystic images 
of the deity, which it was not lawful for any uninitiated person 
to look upon. 

2 The chariot of Pluto, in which he carried off Proserpine 
from the plains of Erma, in Sicily, and descended through a 
chasm of the earth to the shades below. 



THE STORY OF CUPID ANT> PSYCHE. 69 

"I am touched by your tears and entreaties," 
Ceres replied, " and own a desire to render you 
assistance ; but I cannot provoke the displeasure 
of my relative, to whom I am also united by 
ties of friendship of old date, and who, besides, 
is a very worthy lady. Depart, therefore, from 
this temple directly, and be very thankful that 
I do not seize and detain you as a prisoner." 

Psyche, thus repulsed, contrary to her ex- 
pectations, and afflicted with twofold grief, re- 
traced the way she came, and presently espied, 
in a gloomy grove of the valley below the moun- 
tain, a temple of exquisite structure. Unwilling 
to omit any chance of better fortune, though 
ever so remote, but resolving rather to implore 
the protection of the god, whoever he might 
be, she approached the sacred doors. There 
she beheld splendid offerings, and garments em- 
broidered with golden letters, fastened to the 
branches of trees and to the door-posts of the 
temple, upon which was recorded the name of 
the goddess to whom they had been dedicated, 
and also the particulars of the favor received. 

Then Psyche fell upon her knees, and with 



70 THE BIKTH OF PLEASURE. 

her hands embracing the yet warm altar, having 
first wiped away her tears, she thus offered up 
a prayer : " O sister and consort of mighty 
Jove ! whether thou dost inhabit the ancient 
temples of Samos, 1 which glories in thy birth, 
thy complaining infancy, and thy nurture ; or 
whether thou dost frequent the happy mansions 
of lofty Carthage, which adores thee as a vir- 
gin, passing through the heavens in a car drawn 
by lions ; or dost preside over the renowned walls 
of the Argives, near the banks of Inachus, where 
thou art celebrated as the spouse of the Thun- 
derer, and the Queen of the Gods ; thou whom 
all the East venerates under the name of Zygia, 2 
and all the West denominates Lucina ! be thou, 
Juno Sospita, a protectress to me in these my 
overwhelming misfortunes, and deliver me, worn 
out with long sufferings, from the fear of my 

1 The goddess Juno was especially worshipped in the Island 
of Samos and the city of Carthage. The Samians boasted 
that she was born in that island, near the River Imbrasus, 
whence she was called Imbrasia. 

2 Juno was so called from £v y6$, a " yoke," as presiding 
over the rites of wedlock. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 71 

impending danger; for I know that thou art 
accustomed readily to succor pregnant women 
in time of peril." 

While Psyche thus prayed, Juno appeared 
before her in all the august majesty of her 
divinity, and said, " How readily would I lend 
an ear to your entreaties ! but propriety will not 
permit me to act contrary to the wishes of Venus, 
my daughter-in-law, 1 whom I have always loved 
as my own child. Then, besides, the laws forbid 
me to receive into my protection any fugitive 
servant without the consent of her mistress." 

Dismayed by this second shipwreck of her 
fortunes, and being no longer able to make search 
for her volatile husband, Psyche gave up all 
hopes of safety, and thus reasoned with herself: 
"What other relief for my sorrows can now be 
looked for or procured, since even goddesses can- 
not, though willing, aiFord me any assistance? 
In what direction shall I once more bend my 
wandering steps, entangled, as I am, in snares 
so inextricable? Concealed in what habitations, 

1 Venus being the wife of Vulcan, the son of Juno. 



72 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

in what darkness even, can I escape the ever- 
vigilant eyes of the mighty Venus? Assume, 
then, a masculine courage, my soul ; boldly re- 
nounce vain hopes, voluntarily surrender yourself 
into the hands of your mistress, and try, though 
late, to soften her rage by submissive behavior. 
Besides, who knows whether you may not per- 
haps find in his mother's house him whom you 
have been so long seeking in vain." Thus pre- 
pared for this doubtful experiment of duty, or 
rather for certain destruction, she considered with 
herself how she was to preface her entreaties. 



EIGHTH PAET. 



VENUS, meanwhile, declining to employ 
earthly means in pursuing her inquiries 
after Psyche, returned to heaven. She ordered 
the chariot to be got ready, which Vulcan had 
constructed with exquisite skill, and presented 
to her before the celebration of her marriage. 
The nuptial gift was of burnished gold, and was 
even the more precious through the diminution 
of its material by the file. 1 Four white doves, 
out of the many that nestled about the chamber 
of their mistress, advanced with joyous flutterings, 
and, bending their painted necks to the jewelled 
yoke, flew forward with the chariot that con- 
tained the goddess. Around it wantoned chat- 



1 That is to say, the loss of the precious material was more 
than compensated by the value of the workmanship. Mate- 
riam super abat opus. (73) 



74 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

tering sparrows, and other birds of sweet note, 
which announced the approach of Venus in melo- 
dious strains. 

And now the clouds dispersed, heaven unfolded 
itself before its daughter, and the highest sky 
received the goddess with joy ; nor did the tuneful 
retinue of Venus dread the attack of eagles or 
rapacious hawks. She went straightway to the 
royal citadel of Jove, and with a haughty air 
demanded, as especially necessary, the services of 
the crier god ; nor did the azure brow of Jupiter 
refuse its assent. 

Then Venus, accompanied by Mercury, imme- 
diately descended from heaven, and as they passed 
along she addressed him thus anxiously : " My 
Arcadian brother, you well know that your sister, 
Venus, never did anything without the presence 
of Mercury; nor are you ignorant how long I 
have been unable to find my absconded female 
slave. Nothing remains, therefore, to be done, 
but for you to proclaim her in public, and an- 
nounce a reward to him who shall find her. 
Take care, therefore, that my commands are 
speedily executed, and clearly describe the marks 



THE STOKY OF CUPID AXD PSYCHE. 75 

by which she may be recognized, that no one 
may excuse himself on the plea of ignorance, if 
he incurs the crime of unlawfully concealing her." 

So saying, she gave him a little scroll, on 
which were written Psyche's name, and sundry 
particulars. This done, she immediately returned 
home. Nor did Mercury neglect her commands ; 
for going about among all nations, he thus per- 
formed his duties as crier : — 

" If any one can seize in her flight, and bring 
back, a fugitive daughter of a king, a handmaid 
of Venus, and by name Psyche, or discover where 
she has concealed herself, let such person repair 
to Mercury, the crier, behind the boundaries of 
Murtia, 1 and receive, by way of reward for the 

1 The spot here mentioned was at the back of the temple 
Venus Murtia, or guardian of the myrtle, which was built 
on Mount Aventine, at Rome. In the first idyl of Moschus, 
Venus thus proclaims the reward for her fugitive child : — 

M On him who the haunts of my Cupid can show 
A kiss of the tenderest stamp I'll bestow; 
But he who can bring me the wanderer here 
Shall have something more rapturous, something more 
dear." 

This " something more " is the quicquid post oscula dulce 
of Secundus. 



76 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

discovery, seven sweet kisses from Venus herself, 
and one exquisitely delicious touch of her charm- 
ing tongue." 

Mercury having thus made proclamation, the 
desire of obtaining such a reward excited the 
emulous endeavors of all mankind ; and this cir- 
cumstance it was that quite put an end to all 
Psyche's hesitation. She was already near her 
mistress's gates, when she was met by one of 
the retinue of Venus, whose name was Habit, 
and who immediately cried out as loud as she 
could bawl, " So, you most good for nothing 
creature, have you at last begun to discover 
that you have a mistress ? And do you pretend, 
too, in your abundant assurance, that you don't 
know what immense trouble we have had in 
endeavoring to find you out? But it is well 
that you have fallen into my hands, of all others, 
and have got within the very jaws of Orcus, to 
receive, without delay, the penalty of such obsti- 
nate' contumacy." 

So saying, she instantly twisted her hands in 
Psyche's hair, and dragged the unresisting cap- 
tive along. But Venus, the moment she was 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 77 

dragged into her presence, burst into a loud 
laugh, such as people laugh who are furiously 
angry; and shaking her head and rubbing her 
right ear, 1 "At length," said she, "have you 
deigned to pay your respects to your mother- 
in-law? Or, rather, are you come to see your 
sick husband, who is yet dangerously ill from 
the wound you gave him? But make yourself 
easy ; for I shall at once give you a reception 
such as a good mother-in-law ought to give. 
Where," she cried, "are those servants of mine, 
Anxiety and Sorrow?" These attending at 
her call, she delivered her to them to be tor- 
mented. Thereupon, in obedience to the com- 
mands of their mistress, they scourged and 
inflicted other torments on the wretched Psyche, 
and, after they had tortured her, brought her 
back again into the presence of Venus. 

"Just look at her!" said Venus, again setting- 
up a laugh ; " her interesting state quite moves 
my compassion, since it is through that, forsooth, 
that she is to make me a happy grandmother. 

1 According to Pliny, the throne of Nemesis, the goddess 
of revenge, is behind the right ear. 



78 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

Fortunate, indeed, am I, who, in the very flower 
of my age, am to be called a grandmother ! And 
the son of a vile handmaid is to hear himself 
called the grandson of Venus ! And yet I talk 
nonsense in calling him my grandson ; for ill- 
assorted marriages, contracted, too, in a country 
place, without any witnesses, and without the 
father's consent, cannot possibly be deemed legit- 
imate ; consequently this child will be a bastard, 
even if I do suffer you to bring it into the light 
at all." 

Having thus spoken, she flew upon her, tore 
her clothes in a great many places, pulled out 
her hair, shook her by the head, and grievously 
maltreated her. Then, taking wheat, barley, 
millet, poppy, vetches, lentils, and beans, and 
mixing them all together in one heap, she said 
to her, "You seem to me, such an ugly slave as 
you now are, to be likely to gain lovers in no 
other way than by diligent drudgery. I will, 
therefore, myself, for once, make trial of your 
industrious habits. Take and separate this pro- 
miscuous mass of seeds, and having properly 
placed each grain in its place, and so sorted the 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 79 

whole, give me a proof of your expedition by- 
finishing the task before evening." 

Then, having delivered over to her the vast 
heap of seeds, she at once took her departure for 
a nuptial banquet. But Psyche, astounded at 
the stupendous task, sat silent and stupefied, and 
did not move a hand to the confused and inex- 
tricable mass. 

Just then, a tiny little ant, one of the inhab- 
itants of the fields, became aware of this prodi- 
gious difficulty ; and pitying the distress of the 
partner of the mighty god, and execrating the 
mother-in-law's cruelty, it ran busily about, and 
summoned together the whole tribe of ants in the 
neighborhood, crying to them, "Take pity on 
her, ye active children of the all-producing earth ! 
Take pity, and make haste to help the wife of 
Love, a pretty damsel, who is now in a perilous 
situation." 

Immediately the six-footed people came rushing 
in whole waves, one upon another, and with the 
greatest diligence separated the whole heap, grain 
by grain ; then, having assorted the various kinds 
into different heaps, they vanished out of sight. 



80 THE BIRTH OE PLEASURE. 

At nightfall, Venus returned home from the 
nuptial banquet, exhilarated with wine, fragrant 
with balsams, and having her waist encircled with 
blooming roses. As soon as she saw with what 
marvellous expedition the task had been executed, 
"This is no work of your hands, wicked crea- 
ture," she said, "but his whom you have charmed, 
to your own sorrow and his ; " and, throwing 
her a piece of coarse bread, she retired. 

Meanwhile, Cupid was closely confined in his 
chamber, partly that he might not inflame his 
wound by fro ward indulgence, and partly lest 
he should associate with his beloved. The lov- 
ers, thus separated from each other under one 
roof, passed a miserable night. But as soon 
as Aurora had ushered in the morning, Venus 
called Psyche, and thus addressed her: "Do you 
see yonder grove, stretching along the margin of 
a river, whose deep eddies receive the waters of 
a neighboring fountain? There shining sheep 
of a golden color wander about, feeding without 
a shepherd. I desire that you bring me imme- 
diately a flock of that precious wool, get it how 
you may." 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 81 

Psyche willingly set out, not with any inten- 
tion of executing this command, but to procure 
rest from her misfortunes by hurling herself 
headlong from the rock into the river. But 
when she came to the brink, a green reed, the 
nurse of sweet music, 1 divinely inspired by a 
gentle breath of air, thus prophetically mur- 
mured : "Psyche! exercised in mighty sorrows, 
neither pollute my sacred waters by your most 
miserable death, nor venture yet to approach 
the formidable sheep on the opposite bank. 
While heated by the burning radiance of the 
sun, they are transported with savage rage, 
and are the destruction of mortals, either by 
their sharp horns, their stony foreheads, or their 
venomous bites. Therefore, until the sun has 
declined from the meridian, and the serene 
spirit of the flood has lulled the animals to rest, 
you may hide yourself under yonder lofty plane 
tree, which drinks of the same river with my- 
self; and as soon as the sheep have mitigated 
their fury, if you shake the branches of the 

1 So called because the pipe of Pan was formed of reeds 
joined together. 

6 



82 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

neighboring grove, you will find the woolly gold 
every where sticking to them." Thus the artless 
and humane reed taught the wretched Psyche 
how to accomplish this dangerous enterprise 
with safety. 

Psyche, therefore, observing all the directions, 
found her obedience was not in vain, but returned 
to Venus with her bosom full 1 of the delicate 
golden fleece. Yet she was not able to win 
the approbation of her mistress by this her 
second perilous labor. But Venus, smiling bit- 
terly with knitted brows, thus addressed her : 
"I do not fail to perceive another's hand in the 
performance of this task also ; but I will now 
try whether you are endowed with a courageous 
mind and singular prudence. Do you see the 
summit of yonder lofty mountain? From that 
peak fall the dusky waters of a black fountain, 
which, after being confined in the neighboring 
valley, irrigate the Stygian marshes, and supply 
the hoarse streams of Cocytus? Bring me im- 
mediately, in this little urn, ice-cold water drawn 

1 The ancients used the part of the robe that covered the 
bosom as a pocket. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AJXT> PSYCHE. 83 

from the very midst of the lofty fountain." Thus 
speaking, she gave her a vessel of polished crys- 
tal, and at the same time threatened her more 
severely than before. 

But Psyche started off with the utmost celerity 
to reach the very summit of the mountain, pre- 
suming that there, at least, she would find the 
period of her most miserable life. However, 
when she arrived at its confines, she saw the 
deadly difficulty of the stupendous undertaking. 
For a rock, enormously lofty and inaccessibly 
rugged, vomits from its middle the horrid waters 
of the fountain, which, immediately falling head- 
long, are carried unseen through a deep, narrow, 
and covered channel into the neighboring valley. 
On the right and left hand they creep through 
hollow rocks, over which fierce dragons stretch 
out their long necks, and keep a perpetual watch 
with unwinking vigilance. And the vocal waters 
exclaim ever and anon as they roll along, " Be- 
gone ; what are you about ? Mind what you 
do ; take care ; fly ; you will perish." 

Psyche, therefore, petrified through the im- 
possibility of accomplishing the task, though 



84 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

she was present in body, was absent in mind, 
and being perfectly overwhelmed by the inex- 
tricable danger, was even deprived of the benefit 
of tears, the last solace of the wretched. But 
the sorrow of the innocent soul is never concealed 
from the penetrating eyes of Providence. The 
rapacious eagle, Jove's royal bird, on a sudden 
flew to her with expanded wings, remembering 
his ancient obligations to Cupid, who enabled 
him to carry the Phrygian cup-bearer up to 
Jove ; therefore, in gratitude to the young god, 
the eagle deserted the lofty paths of Jupiter, and 
bringing seasonable assistance to Cupid's wife 
in her distress, he thus addressed her : " Can 
you, simple as you are, and inexperienced in 
attempts of this kind, ever hope to steal one 
drop of this most holy and no less terrible 
fountain? Have you not heard, at least, that 
these Stygian waters are formidable even to 
Jupiter himself, and that as you swear by the 
divinity of the gods, so they are accustomed to 
swear by the majesty of Styx? But give me 
that little pitcher." 

Snatching it in haste, he sailed away on his 



THE STORY, OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 85 

strong wings, steering his course to the right 
and to the left, between the rows of raging 
teeth and the three-forked vibrating tongues of 
the dragons, until he reached and drew the 
reluctant waters, which warned him to begone 
while he might in safety. But he pretended 
that Venus herself wanted some of the water, 
and had ordered him to procure it ; and on 
this account his access to the fountain was 
somewhat facilitated. 

Psyche, therefore, joyfully receiving the full 
vessel, returned with all speed to Venus. Yet 
not even by the accomplishment of this danger- 
ous enterprise could she appease the anger of 
the raging goddess. For designing to expose 
her to still more outrageous trials, Venus thus 
addressed her, a smile, the harbinger of ruin, 
accompanying her words : " You appear to me 
to be a profound and malevolent sorceress, or 
you never could with so much dexterity have 
performed my commands : but there is one task 
more, my dear, which you must perform. 
Take this box," she said, delivering it to her, 
"and direct your course to the infernal regions 



86 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

and the deadly palace of Pluto. Then, present- 
ing the box to Proserpine, say, Venus requests 
you to send her a small portion of your beauty, 
at least as much as may be sufficient for one 
short day ; for she has consumed all the beauty 
she possessed, through the attention which she 
pays to her sick son. But return with the 
utmost expedition ; for I must adorn myself 
with this beauty of Proserpine before I go to 
the theatre of the gods." 




NINTH PAET. 



PSYCHE was now truly sensible that she 
had arrived at the extremity of her evil 
fortune, and clearly, perceived that she was 
openly and undisguisedly impelled to immediate 
destruction, since she was forced to direct her 
steps to Tartarus and the shades below. With- 
out any further delay, therefore, she proceeded 
towards a lofty tower, that she might thence 
hurl herself headlong ; for she considered that 
she should thus descend by a straight and easy 
road to the infernal regions. But she was no 
sooner arrived there, than a voice from the tower 
suddenly addressed her in the following words : — 
"Why, O miserable creature, dost thou seek 
to destroy thyself by falling headlong hence? 
What cowardice makes thee sink under this 

(87) 



88 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

thy last danger and endurance, thou who hast 
been so miraculously supported in thy former 
perils ? For as soon as thy breath shall thus 
be separated from thy body, thou wilt indeed 
descend to profound Tartarus, but canst not by 
any means return thence. Listen, therefore, to 
me. Lacedaemon, a noble city of Achaia, is not 
far from hence. Near this city, concealed in 
devious places, is Tenarus, which you must 
seek ; for there you will find a cavity, which is 
Pluto's breathing-hole, and an untraversed road 
presents itself to the view through the yawning 
gap. As soon as you have passed the threshold 
of this cavity, you will proceed in a direct path 
to the palace of Pluto. You ought not, however, 
to pass through those shades w T ith empty hands, 
but should take a sop of barley bread, soaked in 
sweet wine, in each hand, and in your mouth 
two pieces of money. And when you have ac- 
complished a good part of your deadly journey, 
you will meet a lame ass laden with wood, with 
a driver as lame as himself, who will ask you to 
reach him certain cords to fasten the burden 
which has fallen from the ass ; but be careful 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 89 

that you pass by him in silence. Then, without 
any delay, proceed till you arrive at the dead 
river, where Charon, immediately demanding his 
fee, ferries the passengers over in his old patched 
boat to the farthest shore. 

* "Avarice, it appears, lives among the dead; 
nor does Charon himself, nor the father Pluto, 
though so great a god, do anything gratuitously. 
The poor man, dying, ought to prepare his viat- 
icum ; but if he has no money at hand, will no 
one suffer him to expire? To this squalid old 
man give one of the pieces of money which you 
carry with you ; yet in such a manner, that he 
may take it with his own hand from your mouth. 
While you are passing over the sluggish river, 
a certain dead man, floating on its surface, and 
raising his putrid hand, will beg you to take 
him into the boat. Beware, however, of yield- 
ing to any impulse of unlawful pity. Having 
passed over the river, and proceeded to a little 
distance beyond it, you will see some old women, 
weaving a web, who will request you to lend 
them a helping hand ; but it is not lawful for 
you to touch the web. For all these, and many 



90 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

other particulars, are snares prepared for you by- 
Venus, that you may drop one of the sops out 
of your hands. And do not suppose that this 
would be a trifling loss, since the want of only 
one of these sops would prevent your return 
to light. For a huge dog, with three large, 
fierce, and formidable necks and heads, barking 
with his thundering mouths, frightening with 
vain fears the dead, whom he cannot injure, and 
always watching before the threshold and black 
palace of Proserpine, guards the empty house 
of Pluto. Having appeased this dog with one 
of your sops, you may easily pass by him, and 
then you will immediately enter the presence of 
Proserpine herself, who will receive you in a 
very courteous and benignant manner, desire you 
to repose on a soft seat, and persuade you to 
partake of a sumptuous banquet. But seat your- 
self on the ground, ask for a piece of common 
bread, and eat it ; then deliver your message, 
and having received what you came for, bribe 
the cruel dog with the remaining sop. After- 
wards, having given to the avaricious ferryman • 
the piece of money which you have reserved, 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 91 

and having passed his river, you will return by 
the way you came, and that will bring you to 
the same celestial light which you left. But, 
above all things, I warn you, be particularly 
cautious not to open or look into the box which 
you carry, or explore that concealed treasury 
of divine beauty." In this manner the propi- 
tious tower delivered its prophetic admonitions. 

Psyche, therefore, without delay, proceeded to 
Tenarus, and duly taking her pieces of money 
and her sops, ran down the infernal avenue. 
Here, having passed by the lame ass in silence, 
given the ferryman his fee, neglected the en- 
treaties of the floating corpse, despised the fraud- 
ulent prayers of the spinsters, and lulled the 
rage of the horrid dog with a sop, she entered 
the palace of Proserpine. Nor did she accept 
the delicate seat or delicious banquet, but hum- 
bly sat at the feet of Proserpine, and, content- 
ed with a piece of common bread, delivered her 
embassy from Venus. Immediately after this 
she received the box secretly filled and shut; 
and having stopped the barking mouth of the 
dog with the remaining sop, and given the ferry- 



92 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

man the other piece of money, she returned from 
the infernal regions much more vigorous than 
before. 

Having again beheld and adored the fair light 
of day, though she was in haste to finish her 
errand, she was seized with a rash curiosity. 
"Behold," said she, "what a foolish bearer am 
I of divine beauty, who do not even take the 
least portion of it, that I may by this means 
appear pleasing in the eyes of my beautiful 
lover." As she ended this soliloquy, she opened 
the box ; but it contained no beauty, nor indeed 
anything but an infernal and truly Stygian sleep, 
which, being freed from its confinement, imme- 
diately seizes her, suffuses all her members with 
a dense cloud of somnolence, and holds her pros- 
trate on the very spot where she opened the box ; 
so that she lay motionless, and nothing else than 
a sleeping corpse. 

But Cupid, being now recovered of his wound, 
and unable to endure the long absence of his 
Psyche, slipped through the narrow window of 
the bedchamber in which he was confined. His 
wings, invigorated by repose, flew far more swift- 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 93 

ly than before ; he hastened to his Psyche, and 
carefully brushing off the cloud of sleep, and shut- 
ting it up again in its old receptacle, the box, he 
roused Psyche with an innoxious touch of one of 
his arrows. "Behold," said he, "unhappy girl, 
again you have all but perished, a victim to 
curiosity. Now, however, strenuously perform 
the task imposed upon you by my mother, and 
I myself will take care of the rest." Having 
thus spoken, the lover soared aloft on his wings, 
and Psyche immediately carried the present of 
Proserpine to Venus. 

In the mean time, Cupid, wasting away 
through excess of love, and dreading his moth- 
er's sudden prudery, betakes himself to his usual 
weapons of craft, and having with rapid wings 
penetrated the summit of heaven, supplicates the 
mighty Jupiter, and defends his cause. Then 
Jupiter, stroking the little cheeks of Cupid, and 
kissing his hand, thus addressed him : " Though 
you, my masterful son, never pay me that rev- 
erence which has been decreed me by the synod 
of the gods, but perpetually wound this breast 
of mine, by which the laws of the elements and 



94 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

the revolutions of the stars are governed, and 
frequently defile it with earthly intrigues, con- 
trary to the laws, the Julian edict, 1 and public 
discipline, injuring my reputation and fame by 
base adulteries, and sordidly changing my serene 
countenance into serpents, fire, wild beasts, birds, 
and cattle, — nevertheless, remembering my own 
moderation, and that you have been nursed in 
these hands of mine, I will accomplish all that 
you desire. At the same time you must be 
sensible that you ought to guard against rivals, 
and to recompense me for this service by pre- 
senting me with any girl of transcendent beauty 
that may now happen to be upon the earth." 

Having thus spoken, he ordered Mercury im- 
mediately to summon an assembly of all the 
gods, and at the same time to proclaim, that 
if any one of the celestials absented himself, he 
should be fined ten thousand pieces of money. 
The fear of such a penalty caused the celestial 
theatre to be filled immediately ; whereupon lofty 

1 Alluding to the law against adultery, instituted by Augus- 
tus Caesar. 



THE STORY OF CUPID AXD PSYCHE. 95 

Jupiter, sitting on his sublime throne, thus ad- 
dressed the assembly of gods : — 

"Ye conscript gods, whose names are regis- 
tered in the white roll of the Muses, you are all 
well acquainted with that youth whom I have 
reared with my own hands, and the impetuous 
fire of whose juvenile years I deem it necessary to 
restrain by some bridle or other. It is sufficient 
that he is every day defamed in conversation, 
for the adulteries and all manner of corruption 
of which he is the cause. Every occasion of this 
must be taken away, and his youthful libertinism 
must be bound in nuptial fetters. He has made 
choice of a girl, and deprived her of her virgin- 
ity. Let him therefore hold her, let him pos- 
sess her, and, embracing Psyche, always enjoy 
the object of his love." 

Then turning his face to Venus, "Nor do you, 
my daughter," said he, "be sorrowful on this 
occasion, nor fearful that your pedigree and rank 
will be disgraced by a mortal marriage ; for I 
will now cause the nuptials not to be unequal, 
but legitimate, and agreeable to the civil law." 



96 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

Immediately after this, he ordered Mercury to 
bring Psyche to heaven ; and as soon as she 
arrived, extending to her a cup of ambrosia, 
"Take this," said he, "Psyche, and be immor- 
tal ; nor shall Cupid ever depart from your 
embrace, but these nuptials of yours shall be 
perpetual." 

Then, without delay, a sumptuous wedding 
supper was served up. The husband, reclining 
at the upper end of the table, embraced Psyche 
in his bosom ; in like manner, Jupiter was seated 
with Juno, and after them the other gods and 
goddesses in their proper order. Then Jupiter 
was presented with a bowl of nectar, the wine of 
the gods, by the rustic youth Ganymede, his 
cup-bearer ; but Bacchus supplied the rest. Vul- 
can dressed the supper ; the Hours empurpled 
everything with roses and other fragrant flowers ; 
the Graces scattered balsam ; the Muses sang 
melodiously ; Apollo accompanied the lyre with 
his voice ; and beautiful Venus danced with steps 
in unison with the delightful music. The order, 
too, of the entertainment was, that the Muses 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 97 

should sing the chorus, Satyrus play on the flute, 
and Peniscus, one of the satyrs of the wood, on 
the pipe. 

Thus Psyche came lawfully into the hands of 
Cupid ; and at length a daughter was born to 
them, whom we denominate Pleasure. 
7 



EXPLANATIONS. 

THE following explanation of this beautiful 
fable is given by Taylor, in his introduc- 
tion to a translation of it made by him, and 
published in the year 1795. 

This fable was designed to represent the 
lapse of the soul from the intelligible world to 
the earth ; of the truth of which the philosophi- 
cal reader will be convinced by the following 
observations. In the first place, the gods, as I 
have elsewhere shown, are super-essential na- 
tures, from their profound union with the first 
cause, who is super-essential without any addi- 
tion. But though the gods, through their sum- 
mits or unities, transcend essence, yet their 
unities are participated either by intellect alone, 
or by intellect and soul, or by intellect, soul, 

(98) 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 99 

and body ; from which participations the various 
orders of the gods are deduced. When, there- 
fore, intellect, soul, and body are in conjunc- 
tion, suspended from the super-essential unity, 
which is the centre, flower, or blossom of a 
divine nature, then the god from whom they 
are suspended is called a mundane god. In the 
next place, the common parents of the human 
soul are the intellect and soul of the world : 
but its proximate parents are the intellect and 
soul of the particular star about which it was 
originally distributed, and from which it first 
descends. In the third place, those powers of 
every mundane god, which are participated by 
the body suspended from his nature, are called 
mundane ; but those who are participated by his 
intellect, are called super-mundane ; and the 
soul, while subsisting in union with these super- 
mundane powers, is said to be in the intelligible 
world ; but when she wholly directs her atten- 
tion to the mundane powers of her god, she is 
said to descend from the intelligible world even 
while subsisting in the heavens. 

Thus much being premised, let us proceed to 



100 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

the explanation of the fable. Psyche, then, or 
soul, is described as transcendently beautiful, 
and this is indeed true of every human soul, 
before it profoundly merges itself in the defiling 
folds of dark matter. In the next place, when 
Psyche is represented as descending from the 
summit of a lofty mountain into a beautiful 
valley, this signifies the descent of the soul from 
the intelligible world into a mundane condition 
of being, but yet without abandoning its establish- 
ment in the heavens. Hence the palace which 
Psyche beholds in the valley is, with great 
propriety, said to be " a royal house, which was 
not raised by human, but by divine hands and 
art." The gems, too, on which Psyche is said 
to have trod in every part of this palace, are 
evidently symbolical of the stars. Of this mun- 
dane yet celestial condition of being, the in- 
corporeal voices which attended upon Psyche, 
are likewise symbolical ; for outward discourse 
is the last image of intellectual energy, accord- 
ing to which the soul alone operates in the intel- 
ligible world. As voices, therefore, they signify 
an establishment subordinate to that which is 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 101 

intelligible ; but so far as denuded of body, they 
also signify a condition of being superior to a 
terrene allotment. 

Psyche, in this delightful situation, is married 
to an invisible being, whom she alone recognizes 
by her ears and hands. This invisible husband 
proves afterwards to be Cupid, or Love ; that 
is to say, the soul, while established in the 
heavens, is united to love of the purest kind, 
i. e., to intellectual love, or, in other words, is 
not fascinated with outward form. But in this 
beautiful palace she is attacked by the machina- 
tions of her two sisters, who endeavor to persuade 
her to explore the form of her unknown husband. 
The sisters, therefore, signify those two powers 
of the irrational part of the soul, anger and 
desire , the latter of which powers is well defined 
by the Pythagoreans to be a certain tendency, 
impulse, and appetite of the soul, in order to 
be filled with something, or to enjoy something 
present, or to be disposed according to some 
sensitive energy; just as reason , or the rational 
soul, is signified by Psyche. The stratagems of 
these sisters at length take effect, and Psyche 



102 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

beholds and falls in love with Love ; that is to 
say, the rational part, through the incentives 
of anger and desire, becomes enamoured of, and 
captivated with, outward form ; in consequence 
of which Cupid, or intellectual love, flies away, 
and Psyche, or the rational soul, is precipitated 
to earth. It is remarkable that Psyche, after 
falling to the ground, is represented as having 
"a stumbling and often reeling gait;" for 
Plato, in the Phsedon, says, that the soul is 
drawn into body with a staggering motion. 

After this commence the wanderings of 
Psyche in search of Cupid, or intellectual love, 
from whose embraces she is unhappily torn 
away. In the course of her journey, she ar- 
rives at the temples of Ceres and Juno, whose 
aid she suppliantly implores. Her conduct, 
indeed, in this respect, is highly becoming. 
For Ceres comprehends in her essence Juno, 
who is the fountain of souls ; and the safety of 
the soul arises from converting herself to the 
divine sources of her being. 

In the next place, Venus is represented de- 
siring Mercury to proclaim Psyche through all 



THE STOEY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 103 

lands, as one of her female slaves, that had fled 
from her service. It is likewise said that she 
gave him a small volume, in which the name 
of Psyche was written, and every other particu- 
lar respecting her. Now, I think it cannot be 
doubted that Synesius alludes to this part of the 
fable in the following passage from his treatise 
on Dreams : " When the soul descends spontane- 
ously to its former life with mercenary views, 
it receives servitude as the reward of its mer- 
cenary labors. But this is the intention of 
descent, that the soul may accomplish a certain 
servitude to the nature of the universe, pre- 
scribed by the laws of Adrastia, or inevitable 
fate. Hence, when the soul is fascinated with 
material endowments, she is affected in a man- 
ner similar to those who, though born free, are, 
for a certain time, hired to employments, and, 
in this condition, captivated by the beauty of 
some female servant, determine to act in a 
menial capacity, under the master of their be- 
loved object. Thus, in a similar manner, when 
we are profoundly delighted with external and 
corporeal good, we confess that the nature of 



104 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

matter is beautiful, who marks our assent in 
her secret book ; and if, considering ourselves 
as free, we at any time determine to depart, 
she proclaims us deserters, and endeavors to 
bring us back, and, openly presenting her 
mystic volume to the view, apprehends us, as 
fugitives from our mistress. Then, indeed, 
the soul particularly requires fortitude and divine 
assistance, as it is no trifling contest to abrogate 
the confession and compact which she has made. 
Besides, in this case force will be employed ; 
for the material inflicters of punishments will 
then be roused to revenge, by the decrees of 
fate, against the rebels to her laws." 

Venus, however, must not be considered here 
as the nature of matter ; for though she is not 
the celestial Venus, but the offspring of Dione, 
yet, according to Proclus in Cratylum, she is 
that divine power which governs all the co- 
ordinations in the celestial world and in the 
earth, binds them to each other, and perfects 
their generative progressions through a kindred 
conjunction. As the celestial Venus, therefore, 
separates the pure soul from generation, or the 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 105 

regions of sense, so she that proceeds from Dione 
binds the impure soul, as her legitimate slave, 
to a corporeal life. 

After this follows an account of the difficult 
tasks which Psyche is obliged to execute by the 
commands of Venus, all which are images of 
the mighty toils and anxious cares which the 
soul must necessarily endure after her lapse, in 
order to atone for her guilt, and recover her 
ancient residence in the intelligible world. In 
accomplishing the last of these labors, she is 
represented as forced to descend even to the 
dark regions of Hades, which indicates that the 
soul, through being enslaved to a corporeal life, 
becomes situated in obscurity, and is deprived 
of the light of day, i. e., of the splendor of 
truth and reality ; agreeably to which Empe- 
docles sings, — 

" I fled from deity and heavenly light, 
To serve mad Discord in the realms of night." 

But Psyche, in retuning from Hades, is op- 
pressed with a profound sleep, through indiscreet- 
ly opening the box given her by Proserpine, in 



106 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

which she expected to find a portion of divine 
beauty, but met with nothing but an infernal 
Stygian sleep. This obscurely signifies, that 
the soul, by expecting to find that which is 
truly beautiful in a corporeal and earthly life, 
passes into a profoundly dormant state; and it 
appears to me, that both Plato and Plotinus 
allude to this part of the fable, in the following 
passages, the originals of which may be seen 
in p. 10 of my Dissertation on the Eleusinian 
and Bacchic Mysteries. In the first place, then, 
Plato, in book vii. of his Republic, observes, 
that " he who is not able, by the exercise of 
his reason, to define the idea of the good, 
separating it from all others, and piercing, as 
in a battle, through every kind of argument, 
eagerly striving to confute, not according to 
opinion, but according to essence, and, in all 
these, marching forward with undeviating rea- 
son, — such a one knows nothing of the good 
itself , nor of any good whatever ; but if he 
has attained to any image of the good, we must 
say he has attained to it by opinion, not by 
science; that in the present life he is sleeping, 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 107 

and conversant with dreams, and that, before he 
is roused, he will descend to Hades, and there 
be prof oundly and perfectly laid asleep" And 
Plotinus, in Ennead. I. lib. viii. p. 80, says, "The 
death of the soul is for it, while merged, as it 
were, in the present body, to descend into mat- 
ter, and be filled with its impurity, and, after 
departing from this body, to lie absorbed in its 
filth, till it returns to a superior condition, and 
elevates its eye from the overwhelming mire. 
For to be plunged into matter, is to descend to 
Hades, and fall asleep" 

Cupid, however, or intellectual love, at length 
recovering his pristine vigor, rouses Psyche, or 
the rational part of the soul, from her deadly 
lethargy. In consequence of this, having accom- 
plished her destined toils, she ascends to her 
native heaven, becomes lawfully united to Cupid 
(for, while descending, her union with him might 
be called illegitimate), lives the life of the im- 
mortals, and the natural result of this union is 
pleasure or delight. 

The following remarks on the various expla- 
nations of this beautiful story are given in Mr. 



108 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

Keightley's valuable and entertaining Classical 
Mythology : — This beautiful fiction is evidently 
a philosophic allegory. It seems to have been 
intended by its inventor for a representation of 
the mystic union between the divine love and 
the human soul, and of the trials and purifica- 
tions which the latter must undergo, in order to 
be perfectly fitted for an enduring union with 
the Divinity. It is thus explained by the Chris- 
tian my thologist Fulgentius : " The city in which 
Psyche dwells is the world ; the king and queen 
are God and matter ; Psyche is the soul ; her 
sisters are the flesh and the free-will ; she is the 
youngest, because the body is before the mind ; 
and she is the fairest, because the soul is higher 
than free-will, more noble than the body. Venus, 
i. e.) lust, envies her, and sends Cupido, i. e., 
desire, to destroy her ; but as there is desire of 
good as well as of evil,' Cupid falls in love with 
her; he persuades her not to see his face, that 
is, not to learn the joys of desire. At the impul- 
sion of her sisters, she put the lamp from under 
the bushel, that is, quickened the flame of desire 
which was hidden in her bosom, and loved it 



THE STORY OF CUPID AND PYSCHE. 109 

when she saw how delightful it was ; and she 
is said to have burned it by the dripping of the 
lamp, because all sin burns in proportion as it 
is loved, and fixes its sinful marks on the flesh. 
She is, therefore, deprived of desire, and her 
splendid fortune is exposed to perils, and driven 
out of the palace." — This fanciful exposition will 
probably not prove satisfactory to all readers. 
The following one, of a modern writer, may 
seem to come nearer the truth. "This fable, it 
is said, is a representation of the destiny of the 
human soul. The soul, which is of divine ori- 
gin, is here below subjected to error in its prison, 
the body. Hence trials and purifications are set 
before it, that it may become capable of a higher 
order of things, and of true desire. Two loves 
meet it — the earthly, a deceiver, who draws it 
down to earthly things ; the heavenly, who directs 
its view to the original, fair and divine, and who, 
gaining the victory over his rival, leads off the 
soul as his bride." According to a third expos- 
itor, the mythus is a moral one. It is intended 
to represent the dangers to which nuptial fidelity 
was exposed in such a degenerate country as 



110 THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. 

Greece, and at the same time to present an 
image of a fidelity exposed to numerous tempta- 
tions, and victorious over them all. We must 
not omit to observe that Psyche (wvxri) was 
also a Greek name for the moth. The fondness 
of this insect for 'approaching at night the flame of 
the lamp or candle, in which it so frequently 
finds its death, reminds a mystic philosopher of 
the fate of the soul, destroyed by the desire of 
knowledge, or absorbed and losing its separate 
existence in the Deity, who dwelt in light, ac- 
cording to the philosophy of the East. But, 
further, the world presents no illustration so 
striking or so beautiful, of the immortality of 
the soul, as that of the moth or butterfly, burst- 
ing on brilliant wings from the dull> grovelling 
caterpillar state in which it had previously exist- 
ed, fluttering in the blaze of day, and feeding 
on the most fragrant and sweetest productions 
of the spring. Hence it was, in all probability, 
that the Greeks named the butterfly the soul." 



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